Media evaluation/selection : a review with respect to frequently purchased consumer products

Abstract

The media have been the means of delivering the creative message to the audience. Media selection while important hasn't been as difficult as it is today (Walsh, 1990). Advertising messages have thus become more focused. One result of this phenomenon is that there has been increased attention given to advertising waste exposure. It is no longer suitable to prepare a media plan for an entire years' activity, several months in advance. Frequent reviews and the ability to capture unique opportunities are critical. The New Zealand Official Yearbook (1992), points that the New Zealand market has undergone changes in demographic groupings in the last twenty years or so. This has been reflected in the reading, viewing and listening patterns of people.

Advertisers and agencies are showing increasing interest in advertising research. This is due to steady increase in the cost of acquiring space or time in all media. Other than the costs involved in media selection, are the enormous alternatives that confront an advertiser. Besides the print and the electronic media, are subsets of media mixes such as direct mail, billboards, telephone directories and trade shows. Media decisions are also complicated by such changes in the increase of community newspapers and the emergence of several large consumer magazines.

Huge investments are involved in selecting appropriate media. There are also frequent difficulties in making sound choices. This dissertation will focus on the advertising patterns exhibited by product and media types. This study will also propose appropriate media thus saving costs to advertisers in future. Magazines, newspapers, community newspapers and inserts have been selected for this study. A taxonomy (product type by media type) is developed after evaluating studies and models, conducted and developed over a thirty year period. The results show that there is a clear association between type of product and the means of communication. Advertisers tend to use different medium for various categories of products as it seems to be the most efficient way to advertise.